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MODERN LITERATURE, ART AND HISTORY
Lot 156

GANDHI (M. K., 'MAHATMA')
Photograph of Mahatma Gandhi seated with Sir Richard Casey, Governor of Bengal during their meeting at Calcutta [Kolkata] in December 1945, signed by Gandhi and Casey

Amended
1 December 2021, 12:00 GMT
London, Knightsbridge

Sold for £9,562.50 inc. premium

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GANDHI (M. K., 'MAHATMA')

Photograph of Mahatma Gandhi seated with Sir Richard Casey, Governor of Bengal during their meeting at Calcutta [Kolkata] in December 1945, SIGNED BY GANDHI ("M.K. Gandhi", and in Gujarati) AND CASEY ("R.G. Casey") on the image, gelatin silver print, stamped in purple on verso ("...Kindly Acknowledge to J.C. Patel A.R.P.S., C/o Bombay Photo Store..., Calcutta"), 160 x 205mm., [1945]

Footnotes

SIGNED BY MAHATMA GANDHI AND THE GOVERNOR OF BENGAL. Richard Casey (1890-1976) was made Governor of Bengal by Winston Churchill in January 1944, in the immediate aftermath of the great famine, and against a background of increased nationalist agitation. He "was shocked by British racial snobbery, and he tried to break down walls between Government House in Calcutta and the local community" (Australian Dictionary of National Biography), partly through the organisation of a series of face-to-face meetings held between himself and Gandhi in Kolkata in December 1945, at one of which our photograph was taken. In later life Casey served as Governor-General of Australia from 1965 to 1969.

Provenance: Arthur Hughes, Indian Civil Service, Labour Commissioner and Registrar of Trade Unions, Bengal (mentioned in the King's Birthday Honours list for 1943), and later Senior Master at Doon School; by descent to the present owner.

Saleroom notices

Provenance additional note Jack and his brother Arthur Hughes were present in Calcutta at the time of the meeting with Gandhi. Arthur was working for the Civil Service as correctly stated and managed to find a role for his younger brother as he left the Gurkhas who he was serving with in Bengal at the time. Jack was assigned as Richard Casey's assistant, which launched his career in the Civil Service and he was awarded an OBE in 1959.

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